Our Last Day in San Diego

It might have been our last day in San Diego...but it was a blast nonetheless

These bastards eat the fish that you have caught
before you can get them into the boat.

There is no reason to ever have a 5am wakeup call on vacation. Except when it is for a half day of Deep Sea fishing. Well...for the three other guys I went with it was Deep Sea catching. For Me...well...I caught nothing but nausea. Oh well. We did get to see a Los Angeles Fast Attack Class Submarine [think of the American Sub, the Dallas, in Hunt for Red October], an Ohio Class SSBN Submarine [a boat with nuclear missles], and Aegis Class Destroyer [a bad ass boat with the most sophisticated radar system on the water] all at close distance as they were being brought into dock as we were leaving the harbor.


The afternoon was spent getting a guided tour of the Navy Seal Training facility, one of the Seal Team's Armories, and a Seal Sniper's Weapon Locker.

We did a walk through of the Seal Obstacle Course. To stay in the Seal Program a candidate has to run this huge obstacle course in something like 12 minutes. There is like 20 obstacles including rope slipes, barbed wire crawls, and a little thing called "The Weaver." When he was in the program, my roommate's cousin ran it in 7:30. The record is little over 4 minutes. It would have taken me 25 minutes to get over the 50 foot cargo net climb.

My roommate's brother doing one of the last obstacles

I put on all of the sniper gear when we first got there. The body armor, the utility helmet, the all purpose belt and the flak jacket. Then my roommate's brother punched me as hard as he could when I wasn't expecting it. That Kevlar diffuses any impact that comes your way. No bruise or anything, though I think his hand might be a tad messed up now. We then played around with a Bolt Action Winchester 300 and a .50 Cal Sniper Rifle. These are big big guns. And then it was story time from the Seal:

"Back in December, a group of us from one the Team's went up to Washington to hunt. We were carrying our automatic weapons. That's illegal. We were wearing camoflauge. That is frowned upon. We were using our laser range finders and night vision scopes. That really is not appreciated by the locals. Oh yeah, we were also drinking the entire time. Pretty much a recipe for disaster. Good times. Good times."

It then got better when the toys that we fiddled with became high tech: Night vision and thermal imaging goggles. And then more guns. Lots of guns: we finished our time on base going through Seal Team 3's weapon lockers.

A Small Glimpse of Santa's Workshop

MP-5 Anyone?

There were file cabinets full of AK-47's, MP-5's, SigSauer Pistols, Shotguns, and other various assault gear. I've never seen as much firepower in one room in my life. We left the base, stunned at the firepower and toys that the Seals get to have.

The evening finished by us going out for a really nice dinner in La Jolla at Cafe Japengo. My Roommate's Cousin, the Seal, was an enabler. The drinks continued to flow on what was supposed to be our 'take it easy' night. We ended up leaving the restaurant around 12. My roommate, the DD for the evening, turned the car onto the 5 North and we arrived in Santa Monica a little before 2 this morning. Tonight, the party continues, but first our livers must rest...